What Is The Best Router For Gaming 2024?

You’re on your Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4 or PC playing games, but something’s not quite right.  You get the impression that the other guys have an edge over you.  In fact, everyone else seems to have an advantage over you.

For example, you’re playing Call of Duty or Battlefield – you and your opponent see each other at the same time, but the other guy nearly ALWAYS seems to empty his magazine into you and kill you before you can kill him. It’s frustrating and annoying….. and it sucks!

Best Wifi Routers For Gaming

Router
Product
Buy
Type
Bottom Line
Price
Netgear Nighthawk AX12
Asus RT-AC66U Main
AXVery fast router, using the latest Wireless AX tech
$$$
TP-LINK Archer AX6000
AXTP-Link AX Router (wifi 6). Great for heavy use
$$$
Netgear Nighthawk R7000P
ACA steady old favorite. Still packs a punch
$$
Linksys WRT1900ACM
ACLinksys AC router with classic looks and lots of functionality
$$
Asus RT-AC68U
ACHighly rated Asus router, with plenty of grunt
$

Best USB adapter for gaming

It could be because he is simply that little bit faster on the trigger than you. It could be because his Internet connection is faster or more stable than yours, or he may be physically located closer to wherever the game is being hosted.
However, he could be killing you before you can kill him because he has a better home router. One way to help make sure you are not another kill statistic is to get your hands on the best router for gaming…

Here’s a list of features to look out for when choosing a gaming router – how to choose the best router for gaming

Picking Ethernet cables for playing online games

Best Router For Gaming – The Netgear Nighthawk X6 Router

Netgear Nighthawk X6 AC3200 - Best Gaming Router
Netgear Nighthawk X6 AC3200 Buy Button

Well, we think it’s fair to say the Netgear Nighthawk is probably the best Tri Band gaming router. It certainly has the horsepower.

But there are other good, fast gaming routers for gaming…

Best Routers For Xbox One, 360 & PS4

There are a few Wi-FI routers to choose from, but here’s a list of some top routers for gaming:

D-Link DGL-5500 Gaming Router - Best Dual Band Router for Gaming

D-Link DGL-5500 AC1300 Gaming Router

A good cheap gaming router is the DGL-5500 AC1300. It uses D-Link’s StreamBoost technology which has the capability to automatically prioritize devices along with standard QoS. It also has Wireless AC and Gigabit Ethernet ports.

>>>Full D-Link DGL-5500 Gaming Router Review<<<

Asus RT-AC66U - Best Router for Gaming

Asus RT-AC66U Wireless AC Router

The Asus RT-AC66U router has been a constant best-seller for over a year now. With Dual Band technology and Quality of Service, combined with Wireless AC, Asus have produced a router that helps you get the best out of your games.

>>>Full Asus RT-AC66U Router Review<<<

Netgear R6250 - Best Router for Gaming

Netgear R6250 Wireless AC Router

Netgear usually produce good quality routers for the home user. The R6250 is no exception. Another Wireless AC router that has features including QoS, Dual Band and fast speed Wireless AC.

>>>Full Netgear R6250 Router Review<<<

How To Choose The Best Gaming Router

There are some elements to look for when choosing the best wireless router for gaming. The key is to reduce latency and jitter –  look out for and implement the following features:

Quality of Service – This is very important, especially if other devices at home are sharing your Internet connection. Quality of Service (QoS for short) prioritizes IP packets of the owners choosing. This can be by device IP address, device MAC address, data type (ie online gaming or video streaming etc) or a combination, depending on what the router is capable of. So when someone else in the home is downloading the latest movie, or even if your console or PC is automatically getting the latest Windows update, anti-virus update or software patch, you know that your gaming traffic will have the ‘right of way’ and be unaffected by all the other unimportant traffic.>>>List of QoS routers<<<

When applied correctly, QoS can help reduce jitter.

Jitter is a measurement of how random IP packets take to travel from a source device to a destination device within a data communication. If within a data communication some IP packets arrive out of sync from other IP packets – this increases jitter. QoS can help lower jitter by using it’s prioritization feature to help IP packets send and receive in the correct order.

Pick A Router With A Fast Processor – Having a fast CPU means that IP packets (IP packets contain the network data that you use to transfer between devices either locally or remotely) are ‘processed’ faster and more efficiently. The faster IP packets are processed and then switched in the direction they need to go, then the less impact will be felt on latency.

Latency is a measurement, usually in milliseconds, of how long an IP packet takes to go from a device to the destination endpoint, and back again. The lower the latency, the better, as having a lower latency means it takes less time for the IP packets to get from source to destination. This is a big bonus when it comes to time-sensitive data, for example, online gaming. Many different things can contribute to increased latency, and hence poorer performance. This includes geographical distance, the number of hops between the source and destination (think of each hop as a router in the Internet that ISP’s use to move data around), your ISP’s provided service…. and of course YOUR router!

Have A Good Cooling System – Look out for a router that can keep itself cool. Switching and routing packets can be exhaustive for your router’s processor, so it needs to keep cool to be as efficient as possible. Your router should have a good heat dispersion system, or even an in-built cooling fan.

Connect Using Wires (if you can) – If at all possible, use cabled Ethernet. Preferably look for a router with 1Gbps ports, although 100Mbps should be ok, as most Internet connections don’t reach anywhere near 100Mbps. You can still use wireless of course. Wireless has the benefit of mobility – you can locate your PC/laptop/console anywhere around the home and it can connect to your wireless router.

However, due to the way wireless/Wi-Fi works, you won’t see the same results as cabled Ethernet. There are various reasons for this, including wireless interference and how wireless actually communicates (wireless uses half-duplex as opposed to Ethernet’s full-duplex mechanism). Go for a Wireless AC (802.11ac) router if at all possible. It is the latest wireless technology and delivers the fastest speeds with better coverage. It also uses the 5GHz frequency band which can deliver faster data throughput and is less prone to interference from other devices or home appliances.

A Good Router Will Help With These Games…

Call Of Duty: Ghosts - Best Router for Gaming GTA V - Best Router for Gaming Final Fantasy XIV - Best Router for Gaming Battlefield 4 - Best Router for Gaming

Best Wireless Router For Gaming And Streaming – Other Benefits

It’s not just your online gaming experience that will improve. Movie & music streaming will improve as well as voice and video (Skype) and general Internet browsing. Streaming can be sensitive to packet loss and congestion. Using or implementing the features discussed above will help. Setting up your Quality of Service correctly is especially important.

What Is The Best Modem For Gaming?

The Motorola SURFboard DOCSIS 3.0 modems are highly rated. Whatever modem you choose, try to make sure it is DOCSIS 3.0

Routers vs Modems: Explained

Best VPN for Gaming

We hope this article on gaming routers helps the next time you log into Steam or Xbox Live!

Feel free to comment below if you have any queries…

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One Comment - Write a Comment

  1. Hi looking to purchase a router,my existing
    Router has a coaxel cable connection on it,
    But the router I was looking at doesn’t seem
    To have that connection,is there a way around
    This.thanks

    Reply

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